Life Without the Magic
by Laughandsmile4theworld
Summary: Its centuries after the fall of King Arthur and his kingdom. Britians disunited and engulfed by fuedalism; magic and beauty of the old days gone. A rogue group, remnants of the old world thanks to a bad charm, search for a mysterious vestige of enchantmen
1. Chapter 1

LIFE WITHOUT THE MAGIC

Chapter 1: The Discovery

Sunlight fell in a pool on the forest floor illuminating a heavily armed group of four. The town sentry hidden in the trees presumed this group to be bandits and took off through the trees to warn the guards. A mile west of this group, and only a stones throw from the town of Triveck a pretty young girl dressed in torn and bloodied peasant clothing ran into the village screaming that bandits had just attacked her. The town's people started screaming and shouting for the guards whom ran out, shouting at the girl to point them in a direction. She muttered an, "I think…" before pointing to the south and collapsing to the ground.

The guards and most of town's men ran into the woods, carrying pitchforks, axes, hoes, scythes, the odd ancient sword or spear and whatever else this poor town could muster with the intent of killing anything in their way. Back at the town the injured girl was carried into the town hall to be looked at by the town healer and, once revived, questioned about her encounter with the bandits. However, before she was carried away the girl dropped a small parcel that rolled until it hit the granary wall and was unnoticed by anyone.

Meanwhile the scout ran through the supposedly hidden system of wooden tree bridges towards the town. He had got no less than 100 feet from the bandits when he ran into a hidden trap and was pulled up into the sky by one leg.

As this was occurring the Bandits headed southwest toward the huge house of a wealthy Lord that sat on a hill overlooking the town. Lord Hamth was a very superstitious man, and so when he had run into an old woman the day before and had been told not only that if he did not leave Triveck soon he would die, but also every detail of his life previous to that Hamth had completely believed the woman. Before the dawn of this day Lord Hamth had already packed up his family, servants, and valuables and was heading towards his house in the city. He had left only a small contingent of guards whom had rushed to the town after the reports of bandits.

When the Bandits reached the manor they quickly ran through its hallways; empty of both people and valuables, to a small, ancient, and long unused dungeon. They appeared to know exactly what they were doing and worked efficiently and quietly as they together pushed one of the prison gates as hard as they could. Soon they heard the much sought after "click" as the gate slid into position. Turning around a tall slender woman strode purposefully towards the far end of the room and entered a small ring into a tiny slot that had previously been unnoticeable. After she slid the ring in a loud creaking sound was heard as the center of the floor was slowly pushed up revealing a stepladder going down into a black abyss.

Back at the village the wall of the local granary exploded. The town was already in chaos from the reports of bandits, and hearing the explosion set them in a state of frenzied excitement. As the people ran towards the site of the explosion the bandit victim moved off the cot she had just been put on and slipped out of sight. Within minutes she had managed to steal five horses without anyone noticing and was taking an out of site trail towards the manor.

In the woods the guards and townspeople had scoured over three miles of trees and seeing no signs of bandits themselves, and hearing no warnings from their several sentries in this area of the wood, they had turned back towards the village with the realization that they had been duped.

At the Manor the bandits stood looking hesitantly at the weak beams holding several thick pieces of stone above their heads. A tall, foreign boy spoke with a thick accent, "It will crush us." A short, stout, bald man replied by picking a spare piece of iron lying nearby and beating a wooden supports with it. After he had hit the beam several times and saw that if held strong he stated gruffly, "It'll hold" and began his descent down the ladder. The woman and boy followed the bald man leaving a huge, thick muscled man behind.

At the bottom sat, not piles of treasure, but a huge, dusty book. The woman quickly picked the book up, shouted at the bald man and the boy, "Scour this room for anything else!" and hurried up the ladder to the top. Down below the two bandits found only a single gold coin and a small scrap of paper with MORGRAH written on it. They returned to the surface. Once there the bald man ran over to where they had inserted the ring, urged everyone else to back away with the movement of his hand, and pull the ring out of the wall. At this the beams collapsed with a huge thud, sending up a cloud of smoke and forever closing off that chamber. The man placed the ring into his pocket and ran out of the basement, followed closely behind by his companions.

On the main floor of the manor the bandits moved toward the rear of the house and the small servant door that opened out onto the forest. They ran out of the manor just as the girl who had claimed to be a bandit victim showed up with the horses. Within seconds the Bandits were gone.

The townspeople scoured the woods for days after that, but found no sign of bandit activity. They concluded that the sole purpose of the 'bandit attack' was for the young woman claiming to be the victim to destroy the granary. Perhaps, they mused she was some rejected lover of the millers who wanted revenge. The sentry was never found.

Fifty miles out of Triveck in the City of Abhan the bandits sat in the dark back room of a witch doctors shop, pouring over the book with a decrepit old man that repeatedly muttered, "beautiful, beautiful,." to himself as he looked at the text.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Old arguments

"Do you understand?" the old man asked urgently.

"of course we do you nimrod, elst we wouldn't have risked our lives to procure it!" the tall slender woman angrily retorted.

The old man, who went by Drermod, looked up sharply and shouted at the woman, "Ohall, I know you understand what you can get out of this book, but do you understand what it could do to this world? Do you understand that it is worth more than the pitiful use you grant it?" They were reviving an old argument.

"More than the pitiful use I grant it?" Ohall shouted back, "the pitiful use I grant it is going to save your pathetic and pitiful life. If you weren't family I would just leave you for dead!"

"But you could save me while using this for so much more!" Drermod shouted back. Then, with a crazed glint in his eye, he lept up, hobbled forward, clasped Ohalls shoulders and softly pleaded, "Please let us use it to return to our rightful place."

Ohall stared at Drermods crazed look, wondered at his futile eagerness to seek revenge, searched his decrepit face (full of ancient scars and deep wrinkles), smelled his rank and repulsive breath, and pulled away with disgust. "WE CANNOT RETURN!" she shouted at Drermod, pushing him of her shoulders and striding to the door. "You lost the right for that before I was even born. Do you not understand that there no longer is a rightful place for us to return to. You destroyed that place in you hopeless effort to control it. WE HAVE NO PLACE LEFT TO RETURN TO!"

Drermod stared at her fuming for a second then, ever so softly, interjected with, "As long as our land is there we will always have a place." Ohall swiftly turned her face to stare directly into Drermods eyes and with a furious and dangerous tone softly stated, "Understand this father, we have no land any longer. Camelot is dead. You're selfish quest killed it. You too should be dead, I should be dead, it is only because of the curse you brought down upon us that you and I remain alive. If you seek to yet again resurrect that land you will finally die. You've already destroyed your immortal body in this attempt, it will last no longer."

Then Ohall turned to exit the dank room, stopping right before the door to turn around and say to her father, "have that done by morning, I'll be back for it then." As she exited the room her four associates appeared from its dark shadows and followed her out. As soon as they were well down the hallway Drermord shouted, "maybe I'll just take the book and do it myself." For a while he heard nothing and derived some grim satisfaction from this silence, until he heard a faint whisper wafting back from the front of the room. His smile fell as he heard, "you know as well as I that the second you step from this building her and her ilk will be upon you and you'll be dead. You are now living life without your old friend magic."

Outside Ohall breathed in the dank filth of the air, feeling the bad humors envelope her. At least it was better than the rank medicinal smell of her fathers shop. The filthy streets of this city were crowded with the worst of the Saxons inhabiting Danelaw. She looked around at the criminals and vagabonds inhabiting this godforsaken corner of what had once been a beautiful, orderly, and united island. Maybe her father was right, Ohall thought, maybe they could bring back the beauty and magic of the past days, reinstate the glorious days of yore. It seemed that nothing worthwhile was left in this place, just days of endless suffering and monotony, punctuated only by the occasional Viking raid and surge of Britons led by the Bretwalda. Eventually the current Bretwalda, Edward, would again unite this land, but Ohalla doubted that the land would ever again be seeped in the sorcery, magic, and beauty whose tail end she witnessed in her youth. Life at this point seemed desperate and pointless enough that she was tempted by her fathers offer.


End file.
